Cats in Space Cuteness Overload!

It’s no secret that I’m a cat lover! I’m currently owned by three cats, including one special foster kitty named Gracie. The three cats take turns playing musical laps, rotating on my lap so that each one gets some special petting and snuggle time. When I saw a new pattern by Elizabeth Hartmann called Cats in Space, I just knew that I had to make it as soon as possible.

I had a short quilt retreat recently with my sister and two of our quilting friends. I tossed this pattern into my bag along with some fabrics to make one cat block. Usually, I like to precut pieces for a quilt retreat, but I didn’t have time with this project.

I started by cutting out each section according to the pattern, and I labeled the sections with these amazing little plastic squares called Alphabitties. I take each label and clip it to the fabric piece using a Wonder Clip. These Alphabitties labels are game changers for patterns with tons of little pieces that can be easily confused with one another.

I did notice a possible pattern error related to the diagrams. If you look at the picture on the pattern cover, the space pack on the cat’s back is higher than in some of the pictures inside of the pattern. The pattern pieces (V, GG, and HH) are sized so that your space pack comes out shorter than the pattern cover photo. I adjusted these few pieces so that my kitty’s space pack is the higher version.

Here’s a close-up view of the space kitty:

Isn’t the background fabric fun? It has little fireflies, shooting stars, and constellations. It’s called Night Sky by Dear Stella. The other fabrics are from my stash. I used some Alison Glass pink fabrics for the space suit details, some sparkly Essex linen for the helmet, and Kona cotton solids for the kitty.

Once I had created my kitty block, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep it as-is or go ahead and add the three stars surrounding the kitty. I’m pretty sure that I’m going to turn this block into a mini quilt so I thought that the three stars would just up the cuteness factor.

Here’s a look at my finished block:

Swoon! This block is so adorable. The kitty looks like she’s coming in for a hug with her favorite human. I love it so much!

I’m still leaning towards keeping this space kitty as a mini quilt to hang in my sewing room. If I decided to make the small size quilt, I’d need three more space kitty blocks.

What do you think? A mini quilt or enlarge it?

Happy quilting!

Jen

Finished Dogs in Sweaters Quilt

Happy May!

In my last post, I blogged about finishing a dachshund pillow using the new Dogs in Sweaters pattern by Elizabeth Hartman.

I’ve also finished the small version of the quilt, featuring 4 dogs in flannel sweaters. The flannel is from Robert Kaufman’s Mammoth Flannel line and works well with these cute doggies. If you’re in the Missoula, Montana area in the next few months, this quilt is now on display at The Confident Stitch where they have the pattern and kits available.

Here’s a look at the small quilt:

Dogs in Sweaters Small Quilt

Here’s a look at the small quilt with the pillow. I did choose a different colorway for the pillow to show the block using bright, modern prints.

Dogs in Sweaters, Pillow and Small Quilt

On the quilt, I did wonky rectangle-shaped quilting using cream Aurifil thread in 50 weight. It blends into the quilt background so well, and I like how the focus remains on the dachshunds. I think this small sized quilt would make an adorable baby quilt!

Happy Quilting!

~Jennifer